TWO senior Ugandan opposition leaders have been forcibly disappeared, and the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni remains in hiding after soldiers stormed his home and assaulted his wife, Human Rights Watch has reported.
The dramatic escalation comes less than two weeks after Museveni claimed victory in presidential elections on January 15, extending his 40-year grip on power to a seventh term.
Military forces have effectively besieged the residence of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, known as Bobi Wine, who finished as Museveni’s closest rival. Armed soldiers raided the compound twice, cutting electricity, disabling security cameras, and on January 23, allegedly dragging Kyagulanyi’s wife Barbara by her hair and tearing her clothes as they demanded access to her phone.
Security footage shows at least six uniformed men carrying weapons approaching the house. Kyagulanyi has been in hiding since barely escaping the first raid on January 16.
The fate of two deputy presidents from Kyagulanyi’s National Unity Platform party remains unknown. Soldiers detained Jolly Jackline Tukamushaba at gunpoint from a hotel room on the eve of the election, confiscating election documents and money before driving her away in an unmarked van. She has not been heard from since.
The following day, armed men abducted Lina Zedriga Waru from her home outside Kampala. When the military appeared in court last week following a habeas corpus petition, they denied holding her.
The threat against Kyagulanyi turned explicit when Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Museveni’s son and Uganda’s military chief, boasted on social media that government forces had killed 22 opposition “terrorists.” He added, “I’m praying the 23rd is Kabobi.”
At least 118 opposition supporters have been charged with election-related offences, while security forces beat and arrested hundreds more during campaign rallies. The government imposed a blanket internet shutdown two days before voting and indefinitely suspended at least 10 civil society organisations.
International law strictly prohibits enforced disappearances under any circumstances. Uganda has conducted similar campaigns of political repression after previous elections, including mass disappearances following the 2021 vote.
“Opposing Museveni is not a crime,” said Ashwanee Budoo-Scholtz, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Africa director, calling on Uganda’s international partners to publicly condemn the crackdown.
Despite pledging in 2022 to end unlawful detention and torture by security forces, Museveni has yet to prosecute any officials for rights violations.
